Evaluation Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

IPC Media


IPC Media is one of the leading of both consumer magazine and digital publishers in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1963 as International Publishing Company and currently produces over 60 iconic media brands, with print alone reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men – almost 26 million UK adults –their websites collectively reach over 14 million users every month. IPC is owned by Time Inc, the publishing company of Time Warner Inc.
The company has many sub-brands within their portfolio such as: IPC Media Connect, Market Force, Southbank, Ignite, and TX.
The iconic music magazine brand that IPC Media is well known for is New Musical Express (NME) which was first published in March 1952 and will be celebrating 50 years in the music industry in 2012. It was the very first British paper to include a singles chart. Their genre is advertised as rock which would therefore attract a wide audience of both mixed age, gender and target groups such as rockers, punks, and new age groups. The types of musicians they include are Kings of Leon, The Killers, Arcade Fire and Artic Monkeys. NME has become a truly unique multi-platform media proposition. Across the magazine, nme.com, NMETV, NME Radio and the brand's live events and awards, NME reaches over one million music fans every week. NME is the longest published and most respected music weekly in the world. Every week it gives its readers the most exciting, most authoritative coverage of the very best in contemporary music, including award winning features, the latest releases, live reviews, the definitive guide to the best new bands in its Radar section, as well as a regular look back through the magazine's 58 year heritage.

Emap

Emap specializes predominately in the ‘b2b’ (business to business) publishing space. It has specific publications for each genre and in general these are quite different and contain specific content relating to an industry such as nursing, retail and media. This attracts a very wide audience which is attracted through magazines and on-line versions including rss feeds on breaking news within the industry publications.
Emap was established and founded in 1947 and has its Headquarters near Camden in London. The name Emap originates from East Midland Allied Press.

Smash Hits is Emap’s music magazine. It is primarily focused on pop music, and aimed at children and younger teenagers as its content is a mixture of very young pop musical groups, personas as well as content which isn’t of a mature nature. It was published in the United Kingdom by Emap and ran from 1978 to 2006 and was bi-weekly. It featured pop music artists, gossip and fashion that attracted young girls who liked listening to current music. Smash Hits and Top of the Pops were rival magazines trying to compete for higher market share at the same defined audience.

Summary
I would use IPC media to distribute my magazine because have a renown rock image which relates to my music more. They feature lots of older or 'throw-back' music which would create consistently as some of the artists I have used in my magazine are older. It also targets a very wide audience; potentially increasing my profits. I have aimed the product at 15-25 year olds but if older men in their 30-50's happen to come across it when looking back through older music through IPC media institutions they could be another potential market for my magazine as it should remind them of their childhood, especially if they skate boarded.